WARNING! WARNING! Ok guys I'm just going to warn you there are mentions of abuse in this chapter. Just warning you. So... enjoy!


A big sister notices things, she notices when her baby sister is sad, she notices when she's hurting, and when her little sister is heartbroken. So Emma watched as her youngest sister started to close herself off, gone was her bubbling personality, in its place fear. One night after the Charming's weekly Sunday night dinner, Emma was helping Tara wash the dishes when she noticed a large black bruise on her arm.

"What happened?" Emma cried seizing Tara's arm.

"Nothing, it was dark... I just ran into my desk." Tara said yanking her arm away. Just then her phone buzzed and Tara paled,

"I got to go." She said before bolting out the back door.

It happened again a week later when Emma saw the bruises on Tara's shins,

"We played soccer in P.E. Yesterday, and I got in a kicking match for the ball."

Then it was the black eye a week later,

"I ran into a wall, I'm such a klutz."

A klutz.

That Tara was, but getting hurt every single week?

Something was going on.

So one day Emma went to pick Tara up from school. The minute her little sister saw her she froze.

"What are you doing here?" Tara asked

"I thought I'd pick you up and we could spend some time together. Talk." Emma said

"I have homework" Tara objected

"Tara I know you, you say you have homework but it takes you all of five minutes!" Emma laughed. But Tara was smart and saw through Emma's act.

"What are you doing here?" Her sister asked again in a no nonsense tone.

"I wanted to talk to you about those bruises." Emma said lowering her voice.

"There is nothing to talk about, I'm a klutz you know that." Tara said firmly

"Tara, you and I both know you don't get bruises like that by running into walls or getting in kicking matches for soccer balls." Emma said

"It looks like someone's beating you!" Tara was silent for a moment.

"Oh my God."

"He didn't mean to! It was my fault!" Tara said

"Who is it?" Emma asked

"He apologized! He promised he'd never do it again!"

"Ok it is never your fault and I don't care if he promised you the moon he will do it again!" Emma said

"Who is he?"

"Please don't tell mom and dad!" Tara begged

"Who is he Tara?" Emma asked again. Just then a male voice called out

"Tara!" Emma saw the small brunette pale drastically.

"Coming!" She called back, Tara turned to join the boy but Emma grabbed her arm.

"You go with that boy and I swear to God I'll tell mom and dad." She said Tara froze dead

"Tara!" The boy called agitated now.

"I'm coming! I'm sorry Emma," Tara whispered before breaking her sister's grip and running to meet Prince Michael. Emma froze, Derek's son was beating her little sister. Michael put his arm around her sister's frail shoulders and started to walk away as they headed towards the parking lot Michael looked over Tara's head and fixed Emma with a challenging glare. As if to dare her to try that again. Emma met his gaze steadily, no one hurt her family. No one.

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